The Music of Black Americans: A History [Hardcover] Review

Have you ever heard about The National Negro Opera Company? Founded by Mary Cardwell Dawson, the company made its debut in Pittsburgh in 1941. This is but one of the fascinating things you can discover in this marvelous book. If you have an interest in music of whatever variety, your library is incomplete without this book.
This 3rd edition was done in 1997, thus it is quite up-to-date in its coverage of classical, jazz, rock, pop, gospel, swing, ragtime or blues. If it is music as practiced, performed or composed by people of color, this is where you'll find valuable information about it. Beginning with Africa and continuing to the present day, the four sections detail this rich history: Song in a Strange Land (1619-1775); Let My People Go (1776-1865); Blow Ye the Trumpet (1865-1919) and Lift Every Voice (1920-1996). The latter section is particularly informative reading with sections on Jazz, The Harlem Renaissance, and the Mid-Century Decades. It is these years in which artists of color finally took their well-deserved place on the musical stages of the world. Of course, they had been visible in their own world, and the popularity of such major composers as Scott Joplin and Duke Ellingtonallowed them to more or less effortlessly cross-over to the 'white' world. Lena Horne, the Mills Brothers, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway were--and still are--names to be reckoned with in any list of fabulous performers.
And then there was Marion Anderson who finally made her way to the Metropolitan Opera at the very end of her career, making way for Robert McFerrin, Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman, Simon Estes and George Shirley, who were very much pioneers in their respective repertoire. Today, thankfully, artists of color are not at all rare on the concert and/or opera stages of the world. But lest we forget the individual trauma these artists suffered in order to be able to compete in this way, we need to remember the past while we are glorying in the present. This book will, if you let it, open your mind and your ears to wonderful, glorious sounds, without which our world would be a much quieter and poorer place.
The author of this book is the renowned Eileen Southern (Professor Emerita of Music and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University) who is herself a musician as well as a writer, and is eminently qualified to illuminate The Music of Black Americans to the world in general.
Pages 613 through 646 comprise a rich bibliography and discography; the index takes up 41 pages. NO music lover should be without this invaluable reference work.

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This text provides comprehensive coverage of black American music, from the arrival of the first Africans in the English colonies to contemporary developments in African-American history. The book draws on authentic documents, from colonial times to the present, to illuminate the history of black music. The book provides thorough treatment of black women musicians, including Lil Hardin Armstrong, Marian Anderson, Billie Holiday, Leontyne Price and Ella Fitzgerald.

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Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues [Hardcover] Review

Many Americans have shown a great interest in "roots" music as part of a highly commendable effort to understand our country's life and culture.Much of this interest has, over the years, focused on the blues of the Mississippi Delta and, in particular, on the recordings of singer and guitarist Robert Johnson (1911 -1938). Johnson was an obscure figure in his day and his life and music remain the stuff of legend.He had two recording dates in 1936 and 1937.His music was rediscovered in the 1960s and since that time the sales of his collected recordings have numbered in the millions.
In "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues" (2004), Elijah Wald offers a compelling study of the blues and of blues historiography focusing on Robert Johnson. Wald tries to correct what he deems to be the prevailing myths about Johnson: that he was a primitive folk artist caught in the Mississippi Delta who recorded and perfected a local traditional form of blues.Wald finds Johnson an ambitious young singer who had studied the blues forms popular in his day.Johnson, Wald argues, wanted to escape the Mississippi Delta and pattern himself on the urban blues singers, in particular Leroy Carr, emanating from the midwest and Chicago.
Wald finds that Johnson displayed a variety of blues styles in his recordings and that he was largely ignored by black music listeners of his day because Johnson's early efforts to capture an urban blues style were basically copies of more successful singers and because his songs in the Delta blues style lacked appeal to the urban and sophisticated black audience of the time.
Johnson's music only became well-known, Wald argues, with the rise of English rock, and with his rediscovery by a largely white audience.The tastes of black music listeners had moved in a mostly different direction towards soul, funk, rap, disco and did not encompass rural blues singers.The fascination of modern listeners with Johnson, according to Wald, is due to a romantic spirit -- a boredom with the life of the everyday -- and a search for a past full of authentic individuals who knew their own wants and needs and who projected themselves in their art.
Wald's book begins with a history of the blues before Robert Johnson focusing on the commercial character the music had at the outset.He gives a great deal of attention to the Blues queens -- Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey -- and to their smooth-voiced male sucessors, particularly Leroy Carr, as mentioned above, and Lonnie Johnson.These singers profoundly influenced Johnson's music and his ambitions to become a popular entertainer and not a cult figure.
The central part of Wald's book consists of a brief biography of Johnson -- summarizing the various speculations on his life -- and of a song-by-song discussion of his recordings.In this discussion, Wald discusses the music with a great deal of intelligence and understanding.He shows very clearly Johnson's debts to his more commercially sucessful predecessors and explains as well the variety of blues styles Johnson encompassed in his songs.
The final portion of the book carries the story of the blues forward beyond Robert Johnson's death.It shows how the music at first evolved into a combo style, again approaching popular music, which took blues into a different direction from Johnson's recordings.The book concludes with a discussion of Johnson's rediscovery, and the discovery of other Delta blues singers, beginning in the 1960's.
Wald clearly knows his material.For all his criticism of the mythmaking cult over Johnson, Wald's love for this music shines through, as he is the first to admit.Upon reading this book, I spent considerable time relistening to Johnson's music and felt I came away with a better understanding and appreciation of it than I had before.The goal of every book about music should be to encourage its readers to return to (or get to know) the songs, or what have you, themselves.The book meets this goal admirably.
There are few books on the blues that manage to be both scholarly, critical, and inspiring and Wald's book is one of these few.I do not find Wald's thesis as unsusual as he claims it to be, but it certainly will be worth exploring by listeners and readers who do not have a large backround in this music.
In music, a fair and careful historical account will in the long run perform a greater service to the music and the artists than will legends and stereotypes.The Delta singers discussed in this book, Robert Johnson, Son House, Skip James, Charley Patton, were musicians of talent.Understanding their story can only increase the listener's appreciation of the blues.

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The Rough Guide to Blues 1 (Rough Guide Reference) [Paperback] Review

Lacking satisfactory background knowledge I strongly felt it'd do me well to bone up some on this rich history of the musical tradition called the Blues. In addition to this somewhat romanticized and mysterious past promising to be entertaining to read about I knew that most of the music I've loved as what some may call a middle class white boy comes from the Blues, to one degree or another. I really feel I should know more about these people. I've found "Rough Guide to the Blues" to be a well written, top-notch reference book that provides a solid and through overview of a long, rich cultural history. That's the point of it. Detailed profiles of hundreds of musicians and critical reviews of the best, most influential Blues albums. Tells you what albums and songs to hear, offering lists as well such as 10 best harmonica solos and 10 greatest slide-guitar tracks. Rockers influenced by the Blues are covered as well.

Robert Plant digs it. Says author Nigel Williamson "has transported these angel wraiths into the 21st century - breathing new life into a glorious kaleidoscope of Afro-American music".

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The Rough Guide to Blues gives you the complete lowdown on all the grittiest singers, bottleneck guitarists, belt-it-out divas and wailing harmonica players that made the most influential music of the last century. From music legend B.B. King to folk hero Robert Johnson, the guide includes detailed profiles of hundreds of artists and critical reviews of their best albums. The fascinating story is told in full – how the blues crawled from the Mississippi Delta, went electric in the big cities, and spread across the world – with feature boxes on topics like boogie woogie, gospel and the best blues record labels. Check out the ten greatest slide-guitar tracks – or the ten most miserable "woke up this mornin"s. with the handy playlists that help you to pick'n'choose quick "best ofs" to download to your iPod or MP3 player.

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Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s [Paperback] Review

Did you know that women were the first popular blues singers? Black Pearls explores the pioneering women who in the 20's changed the record instustry and music as we know it. Having read a few blues books by now, I found that portions in the introductory sections lacked the sort of awe-inspiring insight that makes for an excellent blues book. And my attention span had me skipping half-way through the chapter on lyrical analysis. Howvever, once I got to the sections that focus on the individual performers, this book excelled. There are many who seem hellbent on denying these particular women a hallowed place in the history of popular music (read Alan Lomax's brief dismissal of the classic blues era in his "The Land Where the Blues Began"), but Harrison's prodigious biographical and musical insights really open the door to a greater appreciation of the women she features. As a companion, I might suggest the cd "Classic Blues Women" by Rhino Records.

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